'Podcasts' | Pre-Roman languages: that's how we sounded more than 20 centuries ago

Bronze hand with the oldest text in the Basque language found in the archaeological site of the town located on top of Mount Irulegi.

EFE/Iñaki PortoIñaki Porto (EFE)

Pre-Roman languages ​​are a fascinating object of study where there are very few supporting elements to know what they were like, what the few texts we have say.

In the absence of a Rosetta stone, they are only guessing.

That is why the so-called Hand of Irulegi, found in 2021 near Pamplona, ​​has been such an important discovery.

It is a bronze plate, in the shape of a hand, dating from the 1st century BC, which contains a text with 40 Proto-Basque signs whose first word researchers believe they have translated: it means good luck.

We take a tour of paleo-Hispanic languages ​​together with the journalist Vicente G. Olaya and Javier Velaza, professor of Latin Philology at the University of Barcelona.

Available on all podcast platforms: